Mirra Andreeva, on the Art of the Comeback

Mirra Andreeva won eight of 14 deciding sets last year. Not too shabby especially when you consider that two of those three-setters came at Indian Wells last year, in the semifinals against Iga Swiatek and the final against Aryna Sabalenka. But until last night’s hard-fought win over Donna Vekic, Andreeva had lost her last six matches at the majors when dropping the first set.

She cites maturity as a key facilitator for her success on Day 2 in Melbourne. Andreeva stayed calm against a top-notch veteran, weathered the storm, and eventually took over the match, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. Impressive, especially for an 18-year-old that won’t turn 19 until April.

Andreeva says it’s all a part of the process, learning to manage anxiety, frustration and a surging adversary as she crafts tactical shifts on the fly.

“I feel like we put a lot of work into that,” she said after the win. “Obviously the whole past year I was still working on the little details, no matter what happens, to always stick to the plan, not to lose the focus or not to get into the panic mode when something doesn’t go according to the plan.

“Now I feel like I really understand that it’s kind of easier for me to focus on that when I’m playing a match, I don’t know, maybe because I’m finally getting smarter (smiling). It’s just easier for me to realize that the panic won’t help here.

“The only thing that’s going to help is if I stay calm, I listen to what my team says, to what Conchita says. The only chance that I have to win the match is to do the right things, the things that I was told by my coach and that’s it.”

Andreeva, who will face Maria Sakkari in round two. She says she plans to stick to her script, and listen to what her coaching staff, headed by former Grand Slam champion Conchita Martinez, tells her to do.

It’s easy for Andreeva to do that these days, another perk of growing older – and wiser.

“In the past, [I was] still a teenager, everything was kind of new to me,” Andreeva said. “I just wanted to do things my way sometimes. Sometimes it would work. Sometimes it wouldn’t work. Now I just don’t care. I do whatever they say and whatever they ask me to, and that’s it.”